193 posts
Austin Barnes was drafted by the Marlins in the 9th round of the 2011 amateur draft. In December of 2014, Austin was acquired by Andrew Friedman in one of his first trades with the Dodgers. He was a key piece in the Dee Gordon trade wherein the Dodgers traded Dee Gordon, Dan…
Yesterday, the Braves sent four of their top fourteen players to the Oakland A’s for Matt Olson? Don’t get me wrong, Matt Olsen is an extraordinary player, but Freddie is “extraordinaire!” The Braves are making a lot of money. They are way under the Salary Cap (yes, I know they…
I continue to read about the sensational LAD prospects. Mark has the Dodgers as a top 10 MiLB organization while no major publication does. After the loss of Keibert Ruiz and Jo Jo Gray, the publications dropped them to mid-level (around 15). Certainly not bad, but also not…
In no way do I think I have all the answers but do get lucky a lot. I think that it is because I do not think in the box or outside of the box. I prefer to think that there is no box! Three weeks ago, I fired our COO and VP of Operations. They were nice guys and I liked them…
https://www.milb.com/fans/2021-organization-all-stars On Monday MiLB released the 2021 Organization All-Star list for the Dodgers. The list was developed by Michael Avallone who apparently had some discussions with Will Rhymes, the Dodgers Director of Player Development. These…
The Giants just keep rolling along. They may never lose again. Don’t worry: it’s an “odd” year – they only win the World Series in “even” years. I think…. hope… pray! This is just a magical year for them so far. They have lost Jake McGee for the rest of the season, but Dominic…
Just a few notes today. Following some of the amazing posts in the past few days, I indeed feel somewhat like a little leaguer as my writing is solely focused on the minor leagues and naturally cannot lead to much discussion. However, little league provided me with some of my best long-term memories, way back in the early fifties. Minor league ball keeps me somewhat in touch with those memories
With Mark on the 10-day inactive list to attend to family business in Las Vegas (ever notice how these trips are never to Des Moines, Iowa or Wichita, Kansas?), Jeff (AC) was desperate for some assistance on the LADT writers roster. With his options limited, he had to resort to adding someone from the alternate training site, and had no choice but to call on me, the Zack Reks/Edwin Uceta
Before I answer with my position, let me do my best to lay out some of the factors assuredly being discussed in the Dodger “war rooms”. Max Scherzer is a HOF pitcher who can still bring it at 37. He would be a front of the rotation pitcher even with the Dodgers. This year he is 7-4 with a 2.83 ERA and an exceptional WHIP of 0.886 in 105 IP.
Not so many games in the minor league scene today as teams at the Low-A, High-A, and AA levels have Mondays off. Triple-A has Wednesdays off. The Arizona Complex League and the Dominican Summer League both have Sundays off. So I thought I would take a look back at the week that was. That is, July 19-25. The Loons four-pitcher no-hitter on July 23 has already been featured on LADT .
Occasionally, I have a little more information than some of you (at times), but it s not nearly as much as it used to be when I had several members of the Dodgers Organization on Speed dial. Jeff probably has a lot more inside connections than I do now. Since Andrew Friedman became President of Baseball Operations for the Dodgers, I have very little inside information and that is by Andrew s
First, to Badger. I love trade scenarios. I do not care how outlandish they are or how realistic they may be. I enjoy reading Bums trade proposals. I am not sure that I ever read one that was realistic, but they are fun. Bluto sometimes gives us scenarios from the baseballtradevalues.com site. They are fun for me. That is what blogs are for. Throw out ideas. To the best of
Earlier in the week, there was a little difference in opinion with respect to the Billy McKinney acquisition. I continue to read how porous LAD’s defense is, and with a gimpy Mookie Betts who may need late-inning defensive help to get him off his hip, a slowing AJ Pollock, questionable defense of Matt Beaty, and the need for CT3 to spend more time in the infield, AF went out and
I should say some of you guys. and I am glad you are not. No disrespect intended. 😉 For the uninitiated, my wife runs the Finance and Operations part of US Water Systems and I run the Sales and Marketing. She is a very hands-on micromanager, while I am a Big Picture person. She is very good at her job, but it does create some issues. at times. There are
In 2020, the Dodgers played just 60 regular-season games. As of right now, the Dodgers have played 91 games, so if you struggle with math (5 out of 4 people do), that means there are 71 games left. That means the Dodgers can almost treat this like 2020, henceforth! The season is not now so long and they can sprint to the finish line. But will they? I think they
A statistician had one foot in a bucket of ice water and one foot in a bucket of boiling water. He said, My feet feel great, on average. He meant that the average temperature of the water in the two buckets was comfortable. This may be true, but the average temperature doesn t tell the entire story. If you put one foot in ice water and the other in boiling water, on
As every semi-lucid baseball fan knows, next week is the 91st MLB All Star game. The results are close with the AL winning 45 games, NL winning 43 games with 2 ties. The AL has runs scored 373 runs and the NL has scored 370 runs. The AL is currently riding a 7 game winning streak. But that is not the only MLB event that is happening next week, and
Last night the Dodger players spoke without saying a word. Their four errors showed that they might have been somewhat distracted and understandably so. But they maintained their composure until they got Max Scherzer out of the game and proceeded to destroy the Nationals bullpen. The Dodger players were laughing and having a great time for the most part except for the defensive lapses. I can understand it. The White
It was reported that immediately after the game last night a San Francisco Giants fan tried to blow up a LA Dodger fan s car. He was not successful, however, as he kept burning his lips on the exhaust pipe. Well, if you are only going to get 5 hits, make sure most of them are Home Runs and the Dodgers did that last night. The bullpen again came through BIG
Being no-hit in baseball is humbling, humiliating, embarrassing, and in this case, it is a wake-up-call! Bear was right yesterday, these are not the 2020 Dodgers. This version is different from last year. Gone are the all-or-nothing bats of Kike and Joc who have been replaced by McKinstry and Lux. That has not been a problem. The problems is that the team has gotten poor production from Betts, Seager and
Instant potatoes, instant coffee, instant whip, instant karma. Everything is instant and pitchers and all baseball players should also be instant. No waiting I tell you: INSTANT! David Price should instantly be a lockdown reliever Tony Gonsolin should instantly be an awesome #5 starter Trevor Bauer should instantly be an Ace and a 2.65 ERA is deplorable Cody Bellinger should have instantly hit several 8-run HRs Andrew Friedman should instantly
I got to thinking about this when Albert joined the Dodgers. Just how many HOFer s have spent time with the Dodgers in Brooklyn or LA. The answer right now is 46. Also 7 managers and coaches, 3 executives, and 4 broadcasters. The broadcasters are Scully, Red Barber, Jaime Jarrin, and Ernie Harwell, who did most of his work in Detroit. But he worked with Barber for a while. The execs
It has been a long time since I have felt a desire to write. I am hoping that I can at least finish this one. I have been trying to finish a certain blog post that I started last March, but have not been able to do so. I was able to write a somewhat complete email to Harold (DC) last week, and responded to two very close friends last
The cream is rising to top the top. The Catman is back, albeit, quite rusty, but his velocity was fine. Phil Bickford is settling in as a nice piece in the bullpen. Cody Bellinger is trying to regain his stroke as is AJ Pollock, after stints on the DL. Zach McKinstry is back and making an impact. But maybe the biggest news is that Mookie Betts is coming out of
Going into last night s game, Clayton Kershaw had the highest ERA I can remember at this juncture. His ERA was 3.33 before the game and 3.66 after he gave up 5 ER. However, his WHIP sits at 1.01 which is barely above his career average of 1.00. He is now 33 years-old and has started 369 games and pitched 2,403 innings with 2,603 strikeouts. He has 77 strikeouts in about
Up to the 1/3 point of this season, we have seen a slumping Mookie Betts, almost no cody Bellinger, some AJ Pollock and some Corey Seager. That s kind of like an 8-cylinder engine without 4 spark plugs. Tonight Jimmy Nelson and AJ Pollock return and Alex Vesia and Edwin Uceta go back to AAA. You bullpen doom and gloomers are not going to like this, but both of these pitcher s
I have been a huge Corey Seager fan since he came into the league actually before he came into the league. I said that he was ready in 2014, but Andrew Friedman didn t listen to me and acquired Jimmy Rollins, instead! I said that Seager could remain at Shortstop and I still believe that he can stay there for the foreseeable future, but, if the right trade happens to come
What? You thought I was talking about Gonsolin, McKinstry, Alexander, Pollock, Graterol, and Bellinger? No, I am talking about Michael Bear Norris! What else would I be talking about? Bear will be back soon and then this place will return to normal. OK, so it s not normal who cares? Oh, and all those players will likely soon be back and things will be normaler for the Dodgers. Here s was OKC s
Maybe Monday s comeback win and Kenley Jansen s dominant save was what the Dodgers needed to turn around their sinking ship. Last night, the Dodgers won 7-1 behind a dominant seven innings by Julio Urias and 6 up and 6 down by Jimmy Nelson, who is now taking to the bullpen like a fish takes to water. It s not going to be all fairy dust and ponies right away, but you
I am of the opinion that most of us know nothing about building a bullpen. Garret Cleavinger was a pitcher most of you wanted to go bye-bye. He has had up and downs, but I see his stuff plays up to major league hitters. Last night, he pitches a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth, including two strikeouts. He is learning to trust his stuff and that is how a bullpen
